US warplanes have bombed positions of self-declared jihadists in northern Iraq, in what the federal and Kurdish governments vowed would allow them to start clawing back areas lost in two months of conflict.President Barack Obama's order for the first air strikes on Iraq since he put an end to US occupation in 2011 came after fighters from the Islamic State group made massive gains on the ground, seizing a dam and forcing a mass exodus of religious minorities.

The Pentagon on Friday said US forces bombed an artillery position after fire against Kurdish regional government forces defending their capital Erbil. Hours later, it said a drone destroyed a mortar position and jets hit a seven-vehicle convoy belonging to the Islamic State with eight laser-guided bombs.

The US operation began with air drops of food and water for thousands of people hiding from the group in a barren northern mountain range. Many people who have been cowering in the Sinjar mountains for five days in searing heat and with no supplies are Yazidis, a minority that follows a 4,000-year-old faith.

Late Friday, the Pentagon said that cargo planes escorted by combat jets made a second air drop of food and water to "thousands of Iraqi citizens" threatened by the fighters on Sinjar mountain.

Obama accused the Islamic State group, which calls Yazidis "devil-worshippers", of attempting "the systematic destruction of the entire people, which would constitute genocide".

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One of the top authors of The Peet Journal is Pete McGea. As a native born Scotsman, Pete has spent more than 20 years working in all forms of the media as a journalist, author, educator, and public relations specialist. Along the way, he has written extensively on state and national politics, foreign affairs, finance, defence, civil rights, constitutional law, health, the environment, and energy. Through his experience, especially the Far East, he is responsible for many editorial assays, political as well as economical.